In Japan, Some Dead May Have Such High Levels of Radiation Contamination They Could Harm the Living and Other Links

Like a zombie in an apocalypse story, the dead in parts of Japan can now kill the living. As many as 1,000 bodies  in Fukushima are left unburied as fears about radiation in the area mount. The bodies are contaminated with such high levels of radiation that not only will collecting and identifying them expose doctors and other workers to radiation but in fact, “Even after the bodies are handed over to the victims’ families, cremating them could spread plumes containing radioactive materials, while burying the victims could contaminate the soil around them…” says The Japan Times.

A spot 25 miles from the Fukushima reactors has had a long lasting radioactive element found in levels twice as high as the standard the Soviet Union used as a measure to abandon the area around Chernobyl says the New York Times.

Martin Williams tweets that “Radio Fukushima is reading out the hourly radiation readings like other stations do the weather.”

The ocean waters around Fukushima are showing increasing levels of radiation contamination. Including the cesium-137 isotope that has a 30 year half life. “”That’s the one I am worried about,” said Michael Friedlander, a U.S.-based nuclear engineer, explaining cesium might linger much longer in the ecosystem. “Plankton absorbs the cesium, the fish eat the plankton, the bigger fish eat smaller fish — so every step you go up the food chain, the concentration of cesium gets higher.”

Radiation is detected in milk here in the US as the UN Nuclear Agency urges Japan to widen evacuation zone. See here for more details. Here is a link to more information about California milk with radiation.

Hey, but don’t be feeling blue.  Here’s a sweet story about about Americans supporting Japanese by walking under blooming cherry trees…. (Okay, they didn’t just stroll around, they donated money too.)